How has Mubi’s SVOD platform developed in recent years, and how do they differentiate themselves from Netflix, Amazon Prime, and locally-oriented specialist platforms? Roderik Smits discusses Mubi’s business model and explains why they are now trying to break in to the distribution business.
Promoting film culture
Mubi started in 2007 as an information-sharing platform which introduced quality auteur films to an online audience of cinephiles.

On International Women’s Day, Huw D Jones looks at the data for films directed by women in Europe and argues limited access to production funding and distribution support is holding back the market for female directed European films.
Less than one in five (17%) films produced in Europe are solely directed by women (fig.1), according to data taken from the European Audiovisual Observatory’s LUMIERE Pro World database and analysed ...

The UK is likely to lose millions in funding from the EU’s MEDIA programme because of Brexit. Huw D Jones examines what this means for British film exports.
Britain’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) in last June’s referendum has provoked a particularly strong outcry amongst UK film professionals.
A survey run by industry analyst Stephen Follows, for example, found that 82% were against Brexit, while only 5% were in ...

Nathan Townsend reports from the UK Film Distribution: What’s Changing? event, organised by MeCETES and Creative Europe Desk UK at the Regent Street Cinema, London, 13 June 2016.
Few conferences have such an unambiguous title, and the programme succeeded in exploring what it says on the tin, albeit with a more diverse range of European input than the headline suggested.

On behalf of the MeCETES York team, Roderik Smits will debate the changing nature of the film distribution business at the Film Expo South industry event in Southampton on 4 February 2016.
Roderik Smits in conversation with sales agents and distributors at the MeCETES industry event at the Danish Film Institute in Copenhagen on 9 September 2015.
Roderik will be accompanied by Michael Ryan (GFM Films), Mark Vennis (MovieHouse Pictures) and Steve ...

Wednesday 9 September, 2015
09.00-17.30, Danish Film Institute (Bio Carl and Restaurant SULT), Gothersgade 55, 1123 Copenhagen K.
Summary:
What are the contours of the new European film and television culture evolving through regional collaboration, EU support mechanisms and policies for a greater European market, globalization and the digital revolution? What are the main trends for production and creative, transnational cooperation, and how are the prospects of changing the fragmented European landscape ...

Huw Jones gave a paper on ‘The Market for Foreign Language Films in the UK’ at the Migrating Texts colloquia, Institute of Modern Languages Research, Senate House, London, on Friday 31 October, 2014.
He was speaking as part of a session on role of subtitles in fostering intercultural awareness and promoting the learning of modern foreign languages in the UK.
Huw explained in his paper, available here, ...

With the advance of Video-on-Demand (VoD) platforms like Netflix transforming the way media content is distributed and consumed, film business consultant Michael Franklin considers the implications for film financing.
Independent film financing relies upon the evaluation of future revenues in order to guide investment and pre-sales. Yet the revenue streams upon which such calculations are made are in a state of flux as traditional release windows (e.g.